This is the first in a
two-part series that will outline conceptual (Part 1) and practical (Part
2) implications of “Thinking Through Linking.” The title carries an intended
double meaning:

Those who design Web-based
activities should “think through” their goals for using Internet links.
The Internet in all its facets holds such a wealth of possibilities that
it is important to choose links that support the given learning goal.

“Thinking links” should
be developed in the minds of learners using the pages. Students should
be exposed to learning experiences that connect to prior knowledge, resonate
with personal meaning, create links to other content areas, extend their
cognitive schema, and prompt the construction of new meaning. [It’s nice
if they push in their chairs and say “Thanks” when they leave class, too.
;-)]

The Information Super HighwayIn the early days of the
Web, Al Gore began referring to the Internet as “The Information Super
Highway.” The phrase served an important purpose by overtly comparing the
Internet to the interstate roadway system, thus making it clear that large
initial investments were required to similarly festoon the country in a
digital communications infrastructure. The analogy captured the spirit
of laying a groundwork that, though expensive, would also change the way
we live and work for decades to come. As an ex-patriot living in Australia,
each time I return to the U.S., I appreciate the very real contributions
government and corporate initiatives in the United States have made to
help realize the dream of a ubiquitous communications environment. Thus
the phrase served the purpose of mobilizing interest and energy by defining
a clear vision.

The Infobahn FallacyYet, when considering the
reality of the Internet from an educator’s standpoint, I contend that the
phrase “Information Super Highway” is more a detour than a right direction.
I say this for a couple reasons. First, for anyone who’s experienced the
World Wide Wait, the image conjured by the Internet is more Parking Lot
than Super Highway. Selling the Net as a high-speed experience can falsely
raise expectations. Just watch a computer lab full of students sucking
from the same congested bandwidth and you’ll see that touting speed and
quick delivery can backfire. Still, I’m a believer. We’re in the very early
days with inevitable improvements in connectivity arriving at the exponential
pace we’ve come to expect of high-tech innovations. Of course the next
trick is getting this to happen pervasively and globally.

More dangerous to education
than a false promise of speed are the ideas conveyed by the phrase “Information
Super Highway.” To me it suggests a fluid and effortless stream of reliable
data with underlying benefits to progress and cross-boundary commerce.
Let’s pause for a moment to acknowledge that progress and commerce, while
not every educator’s primary focus, are reasonable goals for public institutions.
My disagreement comes with “fluid and effortless stream of reliable data.”
A dictionary definition of “information” looks something like “the communication
or reception of knowledge or intelligence.” This sounds pretty good. Don’t
we, as educators, yearn to send convoys of students racing down this road?
So if the Internet is the on-ramp to knowledge and intelligence, who cares
what we call it? The problem is that any savvy Web surfer looking through
an array of links on a topic quickly perceives that much of what’s on the
Web has little to do with information’s usual synonyms: “data, facts, news,
intelligence.” Because anyone can publish on the Web, it’s full of humanity’s
hidden agendas, in-group propaganda, and passionate causes. I’ve made this
case before in “Why WebQuests?” (http://www.ozline.com/webquests/intro.html),
but to summarize:

Viewed through the eyes
of traditional education, who would want a learning resource that presents
the world in all its chaos, offers more opinions than facts, and requires
a subtle intelligence to sort the gems from the junk? Viewed from a more
student-centered, active-learning perspective, what better resource could
you imagine!

In fact, because some librarians
and media specialists put a lot of energy into designing schemes for evaluating
Web sites (and then going on to do so), I often ruffle feathers when I
suggest that this might be a mistake. Given the negotiability of truth
in our era of deconstruction, information explosion, and global perspectives,
I wouldn’t want to set myself up as any sentry before the dominion of reliable
data. It seems wiser—and a more authentic educational practice—to mentor
students as they engage in a process of constructing meaning based on prior
knowledge, personal experience, non-Web research, and a wide sampling of
those related ideas available through the Internet. That’s why I say that
far from an Information Super Highway, the Internet is more of an Opinion
Gridlock. The challenge lies in helping learners map the content and cacophony
of the Web onto their own semantic networks. Left to they own, couldn’t
learners become just so much “node kill” on the Info Super Highway? Thus,
if we in education allow the Web to be portrayed as an Information Super
Highway, I believe we send a message to the larger community that the Net
is one more quick fix toward wisdom. Not only is this untrue, it delays
that most important work of helping students find their way out of the
Opinion Gridlock and into….

Finding Education’s Name for the NetLet’s play a game. We’ll
begin with an understanding: The Web by any other name would still be as
complex and indescribable. Isn’t this true for all things comprehensive,
organic, and evolving, like shades of love, political leanings, ideal diets?
But let’s have some fun and see what we could call the Web based on how
it’s used by educators and students today. The main purpose is not to coin
another inevitably flawed phrase, but to reflect on ways the Internet might
be used in education.

The Ultimate RefrigeratorClearly one way teachers
and proud parents around the world use the Web is as the ultimate place
to post their children’s work. In conjunction with a responsive viewing
audience, publication can motivate superior effort and achievement and
provide an entrée into a global community of learners. Educators
who have had success with this approach might want to share the strategies
that leveraged the most learning from a posting. Either way, the Web is
what we make it with our contributions; so early publication adds content
that might also be more appropriate for younger audiences. Which brings
us to….

The Giant CD-ROM in the SkyAs teachers and home-schooled
students around the world look to support individualized learning, the
Net provides access to resources, activities, and tools never before available.
As search engines and topic-specific directories become friendlier, and
we all carve out our useful corners of the Net, locating relevant content
seems to be a more time-effective endeavor. Yet, as mentioned in the earlier
article “Discovering Your Topic,” looking for traditional content seems
to underuse the contextual and tangential value afforded by Web access.
Certainly constructivist learning goals are more easily pursued with the
number of perspectives comprising the Net, but a powerful benefit of the
Net comes from its inhabitants. Or does it…?

Digital Mall TalkAs a teacher I used to
ask incoming students for an inventory of their interests. My goal was
to learn about their passions or hobbies so that we might tap into them
to vitalize our class activities. About 8 years ago I had a watershed experience:
In the blank line following “My favorite hobby is:” a 10th grade girl wrote,
“Talking on the phone.” Now when I go into schools to work with teachers
or librarians, I inevitably see students jostling for computers to check
their Hotmail accounts or to check who’s in their favorite chat room. Obviously,
the Internet has raised the plane of passing notes to new levels. Even
as “mall talk” distracts from substantial learning goals, shouldn’t we
look for ways to tap into the human yearning to connect with an in-group?
Maybe this leads us to….

Join the Discussion!

How do you and your students
use the Internet? What name could you give this practice? Because MULTIMEDIA
SCHOOLS magazine also supports a interactive Web site, you’re invited
to enter a discussion on Net-nomenclature and how what we call the Web
relates to educational practices. To comment on these names and any other
better phrases you’d like to suggest, point your browsers to http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools
and click on the link for Working the Web for Education. See you online.

A Global CrossroadsMore than anything else,
I suppose I view the Internet as a place where humanity gathers and individuals
must choose. Through the Net’s permutations as conduits for publication,
research, and community, I’m struck by the way the Web reflects humanity.
One place to see this on digital parade is the Magellan Voyeur (http://voyeur.mckinley.com),
where you can see real-time searches conducted by people using this engine.
The juxtaposition of what human beings are (literally) searching for is
displayed and refreshed every 15 seconds. Although what’s posted is never
the same, the collection of search strings frequently resembles something
akin to haiku poetry reflected in a fun-house mirror: “Miata accessories,”
“best interest rates,” “Pokémon games,” “Breast cancer + support
groups.” I mention the Voyeur site because it symbolizes that the Web is
many things to many people, but for each of us it represents a space where
we can access and choose what we need, want, and desire. To keep school
meaningful in a disintermediated world, I say we keep this global crossroads
fixed squarely in the center of our classrooms amidst our students’ innate
hunger for authenticity.